Philippians Chapter 3: Living With Eternity in Mind
Goals have a way of changing over the years, do they not? What is your goal today? I can remember as I look back at my life some of the things that I thought were so significant and important to me. At age eight, I wanted to be the best pitcher the Philadelphia Phillies ever had. I wanted to have three consecutive no-hitters and outdo Bob Feller. At age thirteen my goal was to get a job at a summer camp, which I ultimately did and enjoyed a great time every summer at that camp. At age sixteen my goal was to make the high school basketball team. From age 18-21 while serving my country during World War II on Okinawa my goal was to get out of the service, and get on with my life. During the next 4 years, ages 21-25, my goal was to graduate from college and find the right life partner. At age 32, while married to my life partner, Ollie, my goal was to have my own life insurance agency and I was about to get that when suddenly the Lord started speaking to me to do something different. I asked Ollie if it would be OK if we just “dropped everything and went to seminary” and she said, “Are you sure?” I replied, “I am certain.” And she said, “Lets go!” And that is what happened. Now, in my present years my goal and, without wanting to sound too pious about this, my goal at age 80 is to be used by God in whatever way He chooses and to finish well
Please turn to chapter three of Philippians with me and read about some of the goals the Apostle Paul had--goals that helped to define his life. Webster defines the word “goal” as “the terminal point.” That sounds a little ominous to me. But another definition would be “the end toward which effort is directed.” What had been some of the apostle Paul’s goals? Well, they included among others, the best education, prestige, position, power, influence, self-sufficiency, reputation he could achieve, to name just a few. And here in chapter three we discover he had actually realized all those goals. After making a few opening remarks about the rigidity of some of the religious legalizers of his day in verses 1-3, Paul makes it clear that no one has a more legitimate claim to religious fame than he does. In verses 4-6 he gives us his dossier, his resume of his personal qualifications. Look at verse 5--“circumcised on the eighth day.” That means he had a proper racial birth. “Of the people of Israel”– he is of the proper chosen people. “Of the tribe of Benjamin”– the proper genealogy within the proper race. “A Hebrew of the Hebrews”– he is even a cut above the rest of the proper people. “A Pharisee”– a proper education, in the best schools, of the proper social class. Verse 6: “a zealous warrior against any opposing view of proper righteousness,”as he perceived it– going around laying waste to Christians. And as far as being legalistically righteous himself, he was in compliance. He had a
proper lifestyle and a proper morality.
Indeed, there was nobody better than he at following the rules. Well, why tell us that? Is Paul an unmitigated, insufferable braggart, an egomaniac? No. Then what is his point in mentioning all this? He is simply saying that if he would have died at that particular point in his life and gone to appear before God and been asked by God, “Why should I let you into my heaven?” he would not have hesitated one second before he said, “I have earned it. I deserve it. Look at everything I have done.” Notice verse 4. “If anyone thinks he has reason to put confidence in the flesh, I am way ahead of all of them.” And to honestly say what he said, was indeed a major human accomplishment. He had really done quite well as far as he was measuring things. So, with all of this going for him, what does Paul say? Verse 7: “Whatever was to my credit, I now consider loss for the sake of Christ and what is more, I consider everything a loss when compared to the greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.” In fact, he continues in verse 8, “I consider it all rubbish in order to gain Christ and be found in him, not having my own righteousness (that is what comes from doing all the good things and keeping the law as best I can), but that righteousness which is in Jesus Christ.”
What is being taught, really taught in all of this? Paul is pointing out that no kind of any works righteousness is going to get you into the kingdom of God. It is not going to make it. We all admire people who do great works of charity, of helping, mercy, hospitals, helping other people, the needy, medical, scientific, research. All that stuff is just great. We admire people who go to third world countries and help people have a better life. Only a foolish person would say that is not good. But, as a qualification for salvation or entrance in heaven, it is not enough if all that represents is an attempt at do-it-yourself salvation, of a personal attempt to cover over sin and unrighteousness. Because despite all the good Paul did and the rules he followed he still had sin in his life. He was not perfect. I am sure he lied and offended people. I am sure people were hurt because of him. And as we see later, his heart was far from God and the type of relationship God wanted for him.
In verses 9-11 Paul gives three goals for all Christians. Three words you can easily remember: found, fellowship, fashioned. Three Fs. Verse 9, “to be found in Christ” is explained in this verse as “placing my faith in Jesus Christ and the death he died for my sin.” When God looks at him, Paul says he can now be found in Christ, not standing alone, but in Christ based on His finished work at Calvary. Until I acknowledge Christ as my Savior, I am in a state of spiritual lostness. This is illustrated by the millions of people who are calling up their friendly psychic every day or the desperation that was exhibited by the Hale Bop space alien chasers. I ache
over their empty hearts, their lostness. But God’s love expressed in Jesus Christ places us into the His family. I do not do it myself. He places me there. To be found in Christ means that by God’s grace, I have begun to live in union with Christ. But He does not force it upon us. To be made to be like Christ and be a member of His family we have to allow Him to do His work for us and in us. That is all. The rest is up to Him.
In John 15, Jesus Christ is described as a vine and we are the branches that derive life sustenance from the vine. They are living in union with the vine. Their strength and power come from it. In Luke 15, Jesus told three stories about lost things–a lost sheep, a lost coin, and a lost son. And there was great joy when each one was found. Paul knew what it meant to be found by the love of God.
Verse 10 talks about fellowship. As a child of God I am privileged to have God’s holy word through which I can understand and comprehend His will. And under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, I have a fellowship with Christ, day by day, that is not possible otherwise. This fellowship includes the call to share in His sufferings.
In the first chapter of Philippians, verse 29, Paul wrote, “it has been granted unto us on behalf of Christ not only to believe in him but also to suffer for him.” Do you remember we were talking about Paul and his agony over his own people? How his love for them was so strong that he actually could wish himself to be accursed, cut off from fellowship with Christ if that would mean the salvation of his fellow Hebrew people. That is a lot of love. That is a lot of love and that is a lot of care, a lot of concern. Any many of us share in the fellowship of Christ’s sufferings as we labor in prayer for those that we love who may not be close to Christ. For those whether they are neighbors or friends, family, whatever it might be. Jesus agonized over those He loved who rejected Him. Jesus wept as He looked at Jerusalem, walked in the city and came to His own people and His people rejected Him. And if and when we have rough times or maybe experience rejection or scorn from people, some of our friends, people we like and care for, it ought to bring us closer to Him. Parents, you know how you suffer and agonize over the problems of your kids? You feel this way because you are bonded to them in a love that is strong–at least that is how it is supposed to be.
Ephesians 1:19-20 speaks about the incomparably great power for us who believe, the power that is available to us through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Now you might ask, “How do we fellowship with Jesus based on His resurrection power? It is a good question. I think we can experience it through prayer, through worship, through studying the life of Christ in the gospels, obeying His precepts and attitude. Philippians chapter 2 teaches us to actively pursue His will, honoring Him as our pattern in our works as well as in our words. If we truly believe in the power of the resurrection, new life, it is going to impact our entire life. I think the problem with Christianity today is that too many people resist the direction of the Holy Spirit when He convicts them and prods them and says, “Hey, wait a minute. Think about what you are doing. Just take time. Meditate on what you are doing.” We end up saying, “Nah, I have my own ambitions, my own goals. I love you God, but I think I would rather enjoy this for a while, too.” What will be the end result if we follow him? If we are found in Christ and have fellowship with Him, it will shape our lifestyle and we will become like Him. We will become fashioned like Christ, conformed to Him. Romans 12: 1-2: “I beseech you brethren by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living offering which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed (or conformed to Christ) by the renewing of your mind.”
Next we see Paul addressing the implications of his relationship to Christ. Back in verses 4-6 he reviews his life before Christ, the things he had and his claim to fame. In verses 7-11 he has looked at his life in the present moment, the status quo, but now in verse 12 and following he begins to look at his long-range goals. And as Paul thinks about it, he realizes an exciting truth. That today is the first day of the rest of his life and he only might be granted one more day. Verse 12: “I have not yet attained everything.” “I am not perfect yet,” he is saying. It is also obvious that God is not finished with me, either. You say, “Al, you are supposed to be semi-retired.” Hey, when is it ever over? I do not know. I am not worried about it. Today is the first day of the rest of my life. Let me ask you, if you could only do one thing with your last days, what would it be? Would you teach a class? Would you go to Guatemala? Would you visit your neighbors? Would you care for the sick? Would you prepare to be a missionary or pastor or youth worker? Would you try to reach some of your neighbors with a home Bible study or something? Want to be a politician? We could use a few good ones. Would you work on your marriage or your family relationships a little bit more? Those are worthy goals. Share your faith with one new person a month? Give your life to save somebody else? If you absolutely knew the day of your death and you knew it was soon, what would you change? What would seem most important at that time? Well, it is important now, also, but you are not recognizing it with your time and energies.
Let me tell you a story out of World War II. A Navy ship had been badly damaged by a Japanese submarine and bombers, probably both. It was sinking fast. There were four chaplains aboard that ship. They were about to leap over the side of the ship to save themselves when they suddenly saw four young men with no life jackets. And these four chaplains took off their life jackets, gave them to these guys who were saved while the chaplains went down with the ship. You know, I have often wondered, what are those guys doing with their lives that were saved that day? Paul seems to realize, verse 13, that he cannot go back and revisit his past or undo his mistakes. He refused to be burdened by his past mistakes. “Oh, I had such a terrible life. God cannot do anything with me now. I am a failure.” He refused to be burdened by those things. At the same time, he is not going to bask in the glory of the things that he has done that were worthwhile. We have all done things for which we are ashamed. Paul himself struggled frequently, not doing what he knew he should do and doing the things he knew he should not do. That is the name of the game of life I think. Wow, one day, one week after another. I do not want to do that, but I do it. I do want to do this and I do not do it. Probably most of us could have a list of things that we ought to do. There may be some of us here today who may have offended someone in a business deal or social relationship. Maybe it is a family relationship and you know that God has prompted you to make that relationship right and you have just avoided that humbling confrontation. Or gone into denial and denying what your conscience and the Scriptures are telling you. As Christians, we have the Holy Spirit prodding us and reminding us what we should be doing. Let me tell you that denial will keep you from further spiritual growth. It really will. Denial is a leak in your fuel tank of spiritual power. It really is. Make it right and then move on. Do not dwell in the past. Concentrate on your relationship with Christ and live a life that is worthy of Him.
In Verse 13, Paul says, “I am going to press on,” not casually, not lackadaisically, but straining with effort. “Straining toward the goal,” verse 14, “to win the prize.” What goal? What prize? The goal for which God has called me. It is specific. I am not going to press toward Bob Porter’s goal. I am not going to press toward George Verkaik’s goal or Dave Cleaver’s goal. Pastor Dave, he has his goals. They are not mine. Maybe some of them might coincide. It is specific. I am also going after the prize for which God has called me. And like Paul, I am determined. Bible commentaries vary on what they think the prize is. Some say it was Paul’s call to be an apostle. Some people say it was Paul’s call to get his heavenly reward. Some people say it is the call to know Christ better. And these are all good ideas. I would not question them and it may not matter that much, but I am sort of inclined to think the goal would be to finish well. In 2 Timothy 4:7 Paul says this to Timothy and this is almost the last thing he ever wrote. He says, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” This is his goal. That is what he wrote to Timothy and the prize will be the welcoming words of Jesus, “well done good and faithful servant” (Matthew 25).
Now verse 15, what does it say? Paul says “every one of us who are mature should take the same view of things” that he did. And what is that? It is living with eternity’s values in view. Chapter 1: “For to me to live is Christ.” And James tells us, the half brother of Jesus, anyone who knows the good he ought to do and does not do it, there are a lot of things we know we ought to do, and does not do it, is sinning. You know, in every church there are all sorts of Christians in various stages of spiritual growth and that is good. It ought to be that way. That is healthy. It is a sign of growth. It is a sign of progress. It is a sign of discipleship taking place. If we are all in the same state of mind, look alike, think alike, cloned zombies, spiritual whatevers, we are definitely not reaching others and we are not growing. We are just a bunch of think-alikes. And believe me, there are churches like that. “Think like me, do like me, then you can join my church. If you are different in any other way, go find someplace else. We want people that are like us.” Well, Paul was a discipler. He says in verse 17, “Follow my example and live according to the pattern that we gave you.” The apostle Peter emphasized the same idea in his second letter, chapter one verses 3 and 4. Peter mentions the divine power we have through our faith in Christ. Because of God’s promises and His Holy Spirit, we can avoid being contaminated by the corruption in the world. He then speaks about the growth process. Listen to 2 Peter 1:5. “Make every effort to add to your faith goodness, add to your goodness knowledge, and to your knowledge add self-control and to your self-control add perseverance and to your perseverance add godliness and to your godliness add brotherly kindness and to your brotherly kindness add love.” You know, it seems like we have a whole lot of adding and growing to do. Does it not? And listen as it continues on. “If you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of Christ.” If the salt loses its flavor, it is no good. It is the same in our Christian lives.
Back in Illinois Ollie and I lived in apple country. We had a member of our church who owned one of the largest apple orchards in the country. So every fall we feasted on his delectable apples, most delectable ever. But these apples went through a developing process. In April the blossoms were beautiful. Did not taste very good, though. In June the apples began to appear, green, sour. But in October, delicious, succulent. You are like that? Paul encourages us to seek full maturity. It has been observed, listen to this, that mushrooms grow in damp places. That is why they look like umbrellas. God gives us Christians the opportunity to live under difficult situations in order to show what Christians look like to those who are going through hard times. It is important to grow and to keep on growing.
Look at verse 18: “For many live as enemies of the cross of Christ.” And I tell you this, here is Paul’s heart with tears. It is like riding a bicycle. If you do not keep pedaling, you tip over and fall. And I know we can compare ourselves to other people, but you do not grow by comparing yourself to other people. There is not one person here who cannot point to another person and say, “Well, at least I am better than him, or her.” Verse 18 points out there are always going to be some who, while they claim to be Christian, are discrediting the gospel of Christ. It is a shame, but it is so. And while they may claim to be Christian, they refuse to live up to Christ’s model of service, self-sacrifice and humility. Rather, they choose to satisfy their own desires before ever thinking about others and by living in that way they live contrary to the example that Jesus Christ gave us. Recall the words of Jesus, “I came not to be ministered unto but to minister and to give my life a ransom for many.” And how often we hear the remark about “church people.” “A bunch of hypocrites, they are,” some say. What we are shouts so loudly they cannot hear what we say. It should not be that way. We are not fragments. We are not split personalities. At least we are not supposed to be. We are one person. We are integrated in ourselves. That means together. That is what the word really means. One, integrated together. You cannot separate what you say from what you do and what you believe.
Now in verse 19 Paul lists four characteristics of those who by example, whether professed Christian or not, are practical enemies of the cross of Christ. What about these people? Verse 19 says “their destiny is destruction.” Does that mean to say that these people are eternally lost? I am not sure. Only God knows. It could mean that by life of total dissipation of wantonness that they die prematurely like those people Paul mentions in 1 Corinthians 11 who seem to have lost all respect for God and the will of God or the needs of others and just indulge themselves. The only alternative meaning for the Greek word there would be “total waste.” Total waste. That is a sad epitaph to write over any person’s life. I mentioned before my great friend from high school and college, war days, and how he ended up dying 15 years ago as an alcoholic. I had one chance to visit with him before he died. I look at him and I ask, “What was his life for?” When I think back about his tremendous potential to bring glory to God, I am sad because in the end so much of it seems wasted.
Another group is described in verse 19. It is people whose “god is their stomach.” This seems to be the least spiritual of all things. It is a total disregard for things spiritual. Only the here-and-now is important and since this is so they revel in excess and physical pleasure. The next one is bad--“their glory is in their shame.” Not only bad, but sad. Paul, in Romans 1, after saying how certain people have become filled with every kind of wickedness, proceeds to list about 15 of the most despicable sins, even to the point of saying almost in frustration that they worked at inventing new ways of doing evil and he concludes that first chapter with these pathetic words (verse 32 of Romans 1) – “they know God’s righteous decree, the people who do those things deserve death, they not only continue to do them, but they encourage and rejoice in getting others to do them as well.” And I think we are seeing more and more of that in our culture. They take liberty to mean license to engage in all kinds of wrong doing.
Verse 19 again: “their mind is on earthly things.” Do Ollie and I ever think about earthly things? You can bet we do. But as I once heard someone say, “I never saw a hearse pulling a U-Haul.” That is a gem. We need to ask ourselves frequently, all of us, do I have control of my things or do things have control of me? And if things have control over us, we are living absolutely counter to what Paul tells us here. And what he says in Colossians 3. “Set your mind on things above (eternal values) not on earthly things.” And in the next chapter of Philippians, he tells us things that we ought to concentrate upon. The Psalmist even said this: “May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, my Redeemer.” You let me into the inside of your meditation, your predominate thinking inside your mind and it is going to be easy for me to predict your destiny. Are we supposed to be different from the people and the philosophy of this world? Of course we are, as verse 20 tells us, our citizenship is in heaven. That is where we belong. Citizens of any country are supposed to represent and promote the interests of that country. Question: Are we as citizens of heaven promoting the interests of the kingdom of heaven? “If any man be in Christ he is a new creation” and God’s interest is to draw more people into that heavenly citizenship.
Is Jesus Christ living in you and is He Lord of your life? How will you finish your course? I hope it will not be like Samson who thought he could do it all by himself. Hopefully it will not be like Saul, the king who, while he knew what God’s will was for David, fought it with all his might because it did not please him. I hope you do not end up like Ananias and Sapphira who played “spiritual superstar.” “Hey, we gave all this to the church,” but in reality they held back much of what they promised to give. They could have done what they wanted with their possession but when they put themselves forward as one thing but actually behaved like another God was displeased. Honesty and integrity are important to Christian growth and testimony.
I hope you do not end up like Tim Stone. Who is Tim Stone? In the April 17th, 1999 issue of Newsweek. Tim Stone describes “the most horrible night of my life.” You remember the story of Jonestown and Jim Jones. Tim Stone was a member of that group. He joined the People’s Temple in 1967. He wrote about his feelings when he had been the lawyer for Jim Jones. He had been his business advisor. He had worked very closely with him for 10 years and now he writes an article trying to explain some of the reasons why people join a group like that, that most of us would label, I hate to say it, a bunch of crazies. But I say that with a heartbroken voice. He said he himself had a goal. Listen, he had a goal. And that goal was he wanted to promote his ideas about compassion and helping the poor, all good ideas. He wanted to build a model utopian society and he thought he could do it using Jones. He said he trusted in Jones so thoroughly that he took his 5 year-old son and went down to Guyana to set up Jonestown in 1977. He had been there about five months and he had to come home to spend a little time with his wife who was also a member of the group but lived in Los Angeles. She knew the ins and outs of everything that was going on with Jonestown and Jim Jones. Tim Stone began to realize that his goal of utopia had now deteriorated into nothing more than idolatry and rottenness under this egomaniac Jim Jones.
Stone tried to get his young six year old son back home. But Jones refused to send him. Instead he took the boy for his own. And I do not know if any of you remember seeing the videos that were taken just before that final moment when 914 people were murdered/suicide, the young boy with Jim Jones was Tim Stone’s son. The boy died down there. The tragedy of Tim Stone’s life to me is what started out so idealistically had such a tragic and meaningless end, especially for his own son. And the thing that makes me wonder is, here you have an intelligent man, a lawyer, a graduate of one of the finest Christian colleges in the nation, in his early 20s making such a foolish decision. How much better to come to the end of our days and be able to say like Paul did in his last letter, “I have finished the race, I have kept the faith, I have reached the goal, I have finished well and ahead for me is a crown of righteousness which the Lord is going to give me.” That was going to be Paul’s prize for eternity.
Listen to the writer of the book of Hebrews, chapter 12, verses 1 and 2. “Let us throw off everything that hinders us, the sin that easily entangles us. Let us run with perseverance the race that God has marked out for us and let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.” Christlikeness is our goal. Has your spiritual goal been sidetracked by concentrating on goals that blur your vision of what Christ wants you to be and do? I invite you to recommit to Jesus Christ, the one who endured the cross, scorned the shame, and is now glorified with God the Father. And that same Jesus says to you and me today as He said to his early disciples, “Follow me. Make me your goal.”
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